Objectionable content poses brand risk to advertisers

Sparks’ recent decision to pull advertising from YouTube in response to ‘unsavoury content targeting children’ is a very real risk which most New Zealand companies should be taking steps to guard against – warns Auckland digital marketing agency.

CEO of digital marketing agency Insight Online, Kim Voon, says brand damage is a very real possibility for marketers because there are number of platforms where advertisers have very little control over what content accompanies their advertising.

According to *Reuters Tomorrow’s News 2018 Report, based on a survey of 1,587 executives around the world, 75 per cent of executives have seen brands advertising alongside objectional or unsavoury stories and videos. Seventy-seven per cent agreed that such incidents can damage the brand.

“YouTube, Facebook, Google Display Network and Outbrain are four advertising platforms where your advertising and your brand could become associated with material you may find objectionable, repugnant or unsavoury,” says Voon.

“Today’s environment of un-curated and user-generated content means your display ad could end up alongside a Neo-Nazi blog, for example and, while many platforms – like Google – do have advertiser guidelines there’s only so much that can be policed at any one time.”

Voon says the lack of control is the price for cheap advertising that generates massive amounts of exposure.

“In traditional media like magazines and newspapers you knew who you were advertising with and of course journalists are professionals, so they were vigilant about the accuracy and quality of the content. Editorial integrity was also to the benefit of the advertisers.

“However, that’s all changed because digital advertising is dynamic. Unusual or bizarre issues can arise at a moment’s notice. For example, your Google display advert for the brand of weed killer you’re selling could appear on a national newspaper site alongside an article about a macabre murder by poisoning – it can happen.”

Voon says one option, in such a scenario, would be to pause the Ad campaign for a few weeks until the story dies down.

“Keep a careful eye on your various dashboards to make sure your brand is protected from harm by association and act quickly to stop it happening. Some platforms offer advertisers a relatively high degree of control over where their ads are shown, but every platform requires active monitoring.

“Google Display has a dashboard that lists the websites where your adverts show up. If we see a client’s advert is appearing on a site that they would rather not be associated with, we can exclude that website from displaying our client’s advertising.”

Voon says however that the returns, versus risk, are lucrative because just $50 buys exposure to tens of thousands of potential customers, but the price is less control.

He offers the following advice for digital advertisers:

1. Be socially aware
Know what’s going on around you before you run an advertising campaign.

“Find out what the social mood is like. For example, don’t run an advertising campaign offering cheap labour when the media is full of stories about New Zealand’s low wage economy.”

2. Be vigilant
Monitor your digital advertising dashboards to see where your advertising is appearing, and act swiftly to exclude websites or suspend campaigns where there is a risk to your brand by negative association.

3. Put in place a crisis plan
“You have to be prepared for blowback,” says Voon. “Put in place an emergency or crisis response plan or have reputation expert on standby.

“If you do a lot of digital advertising, there is the chance that something could go wrong. Be prepared,” says Voon.

For more information visit: https://insightonline.co.nz/

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